Richard B the EMT

"The Law is a Ass" Mr Micawber (?) from the writings of Charles Dickens.

The following links are from the Staten Island Advance (Staten Island, New York City, New York) newspaper: http://www.silive.co...icials_res.html http://www.silive.co..._george_ap.html http://www.silive.co...sparks_wav.html The most recent update, also from the Advance: Distraught over looming unemployment, St. George man announced his suicide on Facebook page By Staten Island Advance January 22, 2010, 11:16AM Staten Island Advance/Michael OatesWorkers from the Medical Examiner's Office remove the body of William Rodriguez from his St. George apartment building yesterday.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A St. George man distraught over the inevitability of losing his job with the FDNY committed suicide in his apartment yesterday afternoon, moments after he broadcast his intention via his public Facebook.com profile. Facebook.comWilliam Rodriguez Police confirmed the suicide at his St. Mark's Place residence yesterday afternoon, and said they found no evidence of foul play. The dead man was identified as William Rodriguez, 52, a longtime FDNY EMS employee. On his Facebook status, a despondent Rodriguez talks as if the walls are closing in on him. He believes he is about to be fired by the FDNY. He defends himself, but doesn't say what he's accused of. He mentions an old friend and says he should have heeded her warnings about his job. He attributes violent mood swings to the medication he takes. He acknowledges he's "severely depressed" and concludes his post with the chilling words: "I can't go on anymore. I just hung myself." That post sparked a flurry of panicked comments from his friends, and at 1:36 p.m. -- a few minutes after the message was posted -- one of them placed a call to 911. "What the [expletive]," one friend, Christina Frank, wrote. "I don't like this!! I'm calling you now." "Willie answer your cellphone now," read another response from Richard Fox. "I already called 911, I'm not waiting to see if this is a joke. I hope the address on his profile is correct," Ms. Frank responded a few minutes later. ---------------------------- READ MORE COMMENTS FROM RODRIGUEZ'S FACEBOOK FRIENDS ---------------------------- Within the hour, the reactions of Rodriguez's friends went from panic to anguish, after hearing he had been found dead. After about two hours, the post had been removed from Rodriguez's Facebook public profile. One source familiar with Rodriguez characterized him as someone who had struggled with bouts of depression in recent years, resulting in disciplinary problems at work. In recent months, he had gotten into a scuffle at the FDNY's communications center in Brooklyn, leading to his transfer to another department, the source said. He was placed on restricted duty after that, and on Wednesday, according to the source, FDNY officials gave Rodriguez two options: Resign or be fired. As of yesterday, he hadn't made that choice, the source said. 'TERRIBLE TRAGEDY' Steve Ritea, an FDNY spokesman, characterized Rodriguez as a 22-year veteran of the department and an "active employee at the time of his death." "It's a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the family," Ritea said. He wouldn't comment further. Other friends discussed Rodriguez's death on their own public profiles, referring to him as a "gentle soul." Messages to several of Rodriguez's friends went unanswered yesterday. When contacted by a reporter, his friend Richard Fox responded, "I cannot comment except to say that Willie was a wonderful man whom I shared a friendship with for many years. I cannot speak of his recent troubles as he did not convey them to me. We are all diminished by his passing." Another woman, Tonya Moreau, who's listed as one of Rodriguez's friends, said she didn't know him but was deeply disturbed when his suicide note appeared on her own Facebook news feed. "It was unbelievable," she told the Advance. "You don't expect to see something like that on Facebook, being that it is such a public place. I'm deeply saddened that whatever his troubles resulted in him taking his own life. My heart and prayers are with him and his family. I'm so hurt by this even though I didn't know him." FACEBOOK RESPONDS Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesman, said the company encourages users "to report suicidal content to local authorities and suicide prevention hotlines, as well as to us." William Rodriguez' Facebook.com page on which he announced his suicide. "When we receive a report for someone who has posted suicidal content on Facebook, we immediately alert the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which then attempts to locate the person and provide help as quickly as possible," he said. He declined to comment about the company's response to Rodriguez's note, saying that Facebook doesn't comment about its individual users. A team of detectives worked inside Rodriguez's apartment at 82 St. Mark's Pl. until late in the afternoon. An NYPD scooter parked on the street was the only outward sign of the police investigation being conducted inside the building. When the detectives left, an NYPD officer remained sitting in the hallway to guard the victim's open apartment door until the coroner's van arrived to remove the body around 6:30 p.m. Once the body was taken away, the officer was set to seal the apartment door. An EMS paramedic who briefly visited the scene around 5 p.m. left carrying an orange helmet and orange canvas bag that could have been part of the victim's work gear. The paramedic declined to speak to the Advance as he left. A STUNNED NEIGHBOR A neighbor who lives in a different section of the second floor and did not know the victim said police stopped her from entering the building when she returned from grocery shopping about 2:30 p.m. The neighbor, who did not give her name, said she was allowed to enter after waiting outside for about 20 minutes. At first, she said, "I had no idea what happened." When she learned of her neighbor's death, she said it was "pretty startling, and a little scary." She said she empties her trash into the compactor in the victim's portion of the building. Staten Island Advance/Michael OatesSuicide victim William Rodriguez lived in apartment 2G at 82 St. Mark's Place, St. George."It's pretty quiet on that side," she said. She said it was the second unusual incident that had taken place in the building in the last few months, noting that one of the building guards had recently suffered a heart attack. Two other apartments share the quiet area off the elevator with that of the victim. Two men who had entered an apartment near the victim's left the building shortly afterward without speaking to an Advance reporter. Three other passersby who came and went during in the afternoon said they did not know the victim, and declined to comment further. In February of last year, 30-year-old Paul Zolezzi, an aspiring model from Brooklyn, posted an apparent suicide note on his Facebook page before hanging himself in Mount Prospect Park. According to press accounts at the time, he wrote, hours before his death, that he was "born in San Francisco, became a shooting star over everywhere, and ended his life in Brooklyn... And couldn't have asked for more." And in November 2008, a Florida teenager trained a Webcam on himself, then committed suicide by taking a fatal dose of antidepressants. --Reported by John Annese and Tom Wrobleski --- twitter.com/siadvance © 2010 SILive.com. All rights reserved.

I think I associate the ski mask with the person robbing the 7-Eleven store (for those who don't know of 7-Elevens, think Apu's "Quicky-Mart" on The Simpsons.

Just mentioning, New York State DoH is in the process of changing from a 3 year recert program with mandatory refresher classes, to a 5 year recert with continuing education, for the EMT level of training. What does this have to do with the Au Bon Pain case? The state is fine tuning the programs, based on "patient contact". EMTs in the field are automatically considered for the 5 year program. FDNY EMS dispatch center call takers are also in the 5 year program, as by questioning the callers, that is "patient contact". Dispatchers, as they rarely talk to the actual callers, are not supposed to be eligible, as they don't have this "patient contact", and have to stay in the 3 year with refresher program. The 3 and 5 year programs are in a statewide state of flux, as NYS DoH makes up it's collective mind. One of the accused duo is a call taker, the other is a dispatcher. However, before either sub-class gets to the Emergency Medical dispatch office, they are first EMTs. We know that the EMT City is going to keep an eye on this story, as it continues to evolve. Per the newspaper article, admittedly we have primarily heard the story from the friends, associates and family of the deceased woman, and we are now going to hear the story from the EMS duo.

Thank you, Lone Star, for the reminder, and C-magnet for the advanced level addendum.

Not our place to make such judgment calls. I, for one, have apparently good health friends and relatives, who, knowing what my job entails, have made it known to me, that they have DNRs, or official requests for "no heroic actions to be taken, outside of making the patient more comfortable" at the end of their lives.

My apologies to his friends and family, somehow the name in the string title got jumbled.

Willy Rodriguez, FDNY EMS Command. Resident of Staten Island, New York City, NY. Details as obtained

The duo is on "Non-Patient-Contact" duties. One was a call taker, the other a dispatcher. Both are going to fly a desk in some kind of FDNY EMS Command "Siberia" for the foreseeable future, as the investigation continues. The wheels of justice grind slow, but exceedingly fine (Can someone give me the source of that quote? I hope I didn't mangle it too badly)

Femoral Pulse? Unless the international protocols are more different than I was previously led to believe, when doing CPR, a check of the pulse is done at the Carotid artery. If Femoral is the standard in someone's protocols (not in the US, that I am aware of), please correct me.

From my AOL Welcome screen...

Re-read the article. The investigation is continuing. Let's not be like that old saw of... "Hang them!" "We gotta give them a fair trial first!" "Fine! Give them a fair trial, and THEN hang them!"

Per the news report on the Santa Fe case, here in New York City, the duo knew the combination to the ambulance's drug locker. That suggests to me their employment might have been fairly recent.

Was it only 2 years or so ago, the twin baby children of actor Dennis Quaid nearly died after getting injected with adult doses of a drug formulated for adults, instead of the pediatric dosage of the peds version of same? (Sorry, I forget what the drug was) In that case, the bottles the meds came from did look alike, but nobody actually read the bottles. Is this the proper medicine? Is this the medicine diagnosed for the patient in question? Is the medicine looking as it is supposed to, not cloudy when it is supposed to be clear, or vice versa? Is the expiration date still good? (I think I left something off.)

Interjecting a thought, here: the other language EMT asking "What is a Blood Pressure"? Could it simply be bad grammar? Like the bad joke about character Charlie Chan, describing the Duke Ellington song, "Take A Train"?

Thank you for making my admittedly minor point for me.

At my employ in the FDNY, we all speak English. I do note that I hear a polyglot of regional and international accents in the mix, but I understand them, and they, me. My partner is from Haiti, and I know he speaks English, Patois/Cajun, Spanish, and regular French. Just in New York City, to converse with almost everyone, you'd need to speak English, Patois/Cajun, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Croat, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, several dialects of Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, Farsi, Latin, Portuguese...How many countries in the United Nations? Almost that many languages spoken in the city. I almost forgot, ASL (American Sign Language), and the many languages of the "Native American" and Canadian "First Nation" peoples. I just cannot seem to learn any non-English languages. Just my luck. I envy those who can speak another language. Having said that, it is my understanding that, between the War for Independence, and the War of 1812, both between the US and England (read as the U.K.), Congress voted as to what was to be the "National language", English, German, or French. They voted English.

Most of the agencies I have worked for, or volunteered for, call for the departmental patch to be on the left sleeve, one inch below the shoulder seam, and the level of training patch to be on the right sleeve, also one inch below the shoulder seam. In both cases, the patches were to be equidistant from the front and back of the sleeve. If the agency has title patches like "Tech", "MVO", "Dispatcher", "Hurst Tool Qualified", and what not, you'll be told on which side to put them, lined up with the agency or training patches, most likely at either 1/4 or 1/2 inch intervals. Some agencies also use label type patches, mounted 1/2 inch above either the left or right breast pocket, or both. My FDNY uniform is with "EMT" over the right pocket, "FDNY" over the left, in white block lettering on navy blue patches. The fire fighters have theirs embroidered on, with their last names over the right pocket, and "FDNY" over the left, in red. The shirts themselves are Navy blue in both cases.

My speculative answer, as I have never been even to the east side of the Atlantic, to number 3 is, as a Muslim country, they won't be mixing milk products with meat products, so there is a likelihood of no McDonald's there. It is my understanding that Halal, for the Muslims, is as Kosher is for the devout Jewish. Both are religious food preparations under religious laws, and I understand might be considered by some to be equal.

Please clarify something for me. Charlie's temperature is 38 point 5 degrees? Either he is hypothermic, as the temperature is below 80 degrees, normal being 98 point 6, or someone forgot to indicate Fahrenheit versus Celsius. Sorry, I'm used to working with the Fahrenheit scale.

DwayneEMTP: When I have been in that situation, I am not going to lie, but I'm not going to tell the truth either. I'd hedge my bets by telling the patient something to the effect of "Not if I can help it."

Trachial shift or other indicators, possibly secondary to collapsed lung? Sounds like a good call, diagnostically.

That explains why the Bed-Sty VAC didn't send a representative to the District 4-New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association's monthly meeting last week. and in Haiti! To all rescue, recovery, and sustenance delivery teams, of all nationalities in, and on the way to Haiti: You ROCK!

I don't know if those EMT City members living anywhere else than New York city are aware of this, but the NYPD has random and routine checkpoints at the turnstile entrances to the subway trains. You're subject to search of any and all back packs or large packages, from after the London, England, subway train bombings. What I find kind of strange type funny is, when I started working at the FDNY Headquarters, and started riding the subways regularly, I was carrying my assorted "stuff" in a back pack. One item I carried was a Radio Shack "Pocket Scanner" monitor radio, with it's "Rubber Ducky" antenna poking out of the bag. Perhaps it was because I was in the work uniform of the FDNY EMS Command, but when I got to the checkpoint, not only was I not challenged, and the bag not checked, one of the LEOs actually used his fare card to "swipe" me in for free! (Would not have mattered much, as it was a free transfer on my own fare card from the bus to the subway.)

As described by your posting, I think our protocols are the same: Exact wording notwithstanding, I think everyone on the site has the same thing!